Forgive me for starting a new thread. I’m doing it because some of these video notes are long, and I’d like to try to do one for each game. Here’s the one for the Bucks game. I won’t talk about the scoring. Everybody’s seen that. I’m more interested in what he’s doing to improve the areas where he’s been deficient. 1. I’ve been on his case to develop better defensive footwork and balance, with less lunging and gambling. On that score he’s showing notable improvement. We all saw the play early in the 4th where he deflected the ball and somehow, from the floor, flipped the ball to Tari. Great play, but the key thing is that he didn’t get that steal by reaching around. He got it by using quick steps to stay in front of Anthony, keep his balance, and put himself in position to poke the ball away. He didn’t have to lunge. He just anticipated Anthony’s move and planted his left foot in the right place. Ditto on the subsequent play where he busted Giannis’s fast break. Reed kept his cool, put himself in the right position, got down low, and poked the ball away. We know how much he loves to get steals by lunging and swiping. What he did to Giannis was a different kind of steal, and it’s a much better strategy, because if the defender doesn’t get the ball, his position still takes away the path to the basket. Reed has shown he has the anticipation and hands to be good at this. If he can overcome his temptations and focus on this safer strategy, I think it’ll pay off, and he’ll get more minutes. One other play I have to call out: Early in the 4th, when Green tried to go baseline, Reed cut him off. The footwork was exemplary. It showed how quickly Reed can shift his position when he puts his mind to it. This is important, because we’re still finding out what this kid is physically capable of. He’s showing signs that if keeps working on it, he’ll be able to give us FVV-level on-ball defense. 2. In this game he did a much better job defensively (similar to the Celtics game and I would say better) of quickly closing space to the ball handler and crowding him. In previous games he has hung back, apparently thinking that’s safer. It isn’t. Reed’s best strategy against most ball handlers is to use his speed to close the space right away, so they don’t start with any runway. When they get runway, that’s when they can make a move, throw him off balance, and blow by him. He was also more aggressive on staying with curlers who came for handoffs. Didn’t give them any breathing room. 3. His defense off the ball was notably more physical, a big step up from previous games. For example, grabbing the screener and holding on till our big man could make the switch. Also more aggressive in fighting off bigger guys on box-outs. Generally doing a much better job of getting right up against bigs off the ball to take away some of their options. He’s not strong, but the other side of the coin is that at his size, he’s not gonna get called for this kind of physicality. Finally he’s starting to take advantage of that. 4. This is a big deal in the zone: In this game Reed was way, way more decisive about choosing which guy to guard. Ditto when he was put in screens or curls. This was a major problem in previous games (I assume it’s why Alpi was pissed at him in the Spurs game), and Reed has clearly taken the message to heart. Again and again, he was very quick to choose a man and make it super clear to teammates (sometimes by outright grabbing his guy) which assignment he was taking on. This, in turn, allowed our other players to immediately identify who was left to guard. I have to shout out a play early in the 4th where the Bucks ran a pick at the foul line to put Reed on Giannis. God bless Reed, he instantly got right up in Giannis’s face (well, sternum) and flustered him for a moment so Giannis couldn’t take advantage before backup arrived. 5. Just one other thing to add: Reed has his issues as the initial playmaker, but I’m not seeing anybody on our roster who’s more reliable at avoiding turnovers. KD, Amen, Alpi, Jabari, Tari, Okogie — they’re all showing serious deficiencies and coughing it up. If one of them can become that guy, great. Otherwise, I’m for giving Reed the ball and encouraging him to make decisions. I think he’s learning quickly, and I’m willing to put up with some initial mistakes as he figures out where he’ll have the space to pass or shoot. But that’s a topic for another day.
There were multiple plays where the Bucks had a fast break and Reed was the guy who went for the chase down, even when he wasn't the reason for the turnover/break... It was ultimately completely and totally futile a couple times lol, but one has to think even just having a defender in the vicinity has some effect on the player with the ball, and I appreciated his effort. I think it seems clear Reed has the work ethic, and he probably has the IQ. Between that and his obvious scoring talent, and the fact that he's only 21 and in his second season, one has to think it's just a matter of time before he's consistently a big problem for our opponents... Especially on a team with so much other fire power distracting from himself.
Great assessment. Right now, he’s definitely not losing us any games and I agree with KD that he won that game. So long as the playing time stays consistent, I imagine we’ll see a much improved version of Reed from where he’s at right now.
Good write up. Much like Amen broke out in year 2 due to his basketball IQ and work ethic, I'm seeing the same thing from Reed. He's simply a fast learner and the game is slowing down for him.
Too long; Didn't Reed. Just kidding. I'm excited to see his progress too. I noticed he wasn't being picked on quite the same way this past game. And it makes sense with the kind of plays he's been making. I'm super excited about the idea of him being a Fred like defender with his shooting. And honestly, if he keeps shooting the way he's been shooting, they're going to have to start looking at getting him clean looks like the Warriors do Curry.
This is something I've been meaning to highlight. His fouls are relatively low (1.6, or about 2.6 per 36) for a player who uses his hands a lot and hasn't established a reputation with the refs yet. He can stand to be a lot more physical defensively both off ball and at the point of attack. He's too small to play off guys and let them get a head of steam toward the basket.
That's what I'd like to see next. We have way too much of Reed standing in one place. If it's the corner, I can understand it. But if it's anywhere else, we should be running screens like the Warriors. Use Adams, who's often in the game with Reed. Or use KD or Jabari so the action frees them up as an alternative shooter.
If he would have been given more time last season and not yanked any time he made a mistake, he would be so much farther along. His is going through the growing pains he should have been allowed to go through last season but is maturing quickly now.
It’s weird. We have a lot of evidence of split action last year, enough to know they practice it.(A lot of Princeton Point Series and a lot of Zoom, both with Sengun or Admas handling the ball out front.) And in preseason we saw it again with KD and Jabari. But rare so far in regular season.
And yet everybody wants to move Amen off of point after 8 games. He should have been starting at point halfway through last year instead of dribble, dribble chuck FVV. I find it weird that people have so much insistence on Reed getting time at point and wanting our future superstar moved to the dunker spot after 8 games. There is plenty of opportunity to play Reed 20 mins a game at point and being a little more patient with Amen who is in another stratosphere than Reed.
That's because Amen is terrible at it and amazing at something else. You are committed to Amen pretending to be a PG no matter what.... most Rockets fans just wasn't what is good for the team. You'd rather Amen look like **** pretending to be a PG than being a superstar in the dunker's spot. The whole pretending to be a PG rather than doing what he's good at is why Amen currently trails Sheppard in many metrics.
I’m for the Rockets winning championships and believe Amen playing point will pan out. If he doesn’t pan out as a point guard and we can find the formula for a championship with him at the dunker’s spot, I will be fine and admit I was wrong. Unlike you, I can admit that sometimes I am wrong or off target. You have a mental disorder that doesn’t allow for different opinions other than your own. I do think that Amen is a superstar at any position, but wants to play PG and we will lose him if we force him into being at a position where he is only marginally better than others. At PG, he can become an all-time great. At SF/PF he will be great, but not exponentially better than other good players. I have made the analogy before, it is like moving a good hitting catcher to 1b where he is just middle of the pack. Again he has only been playing pg 50% of the time for 8 games. You complain about the lack of Reed getting opportunities, but have no problem on giving up on Amen after 8 games.
